(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): The
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should
exercise his public duty to stop the police from turning the country upsidedown
with the nation-wide Ops Warta II where
thousands of police personnel would put up roadblocks, conduct house-to-house searches, ambush car parks of
commercial buildings and shopping complexes to
track down offenders with
outstanding 3.3 million traffic summons which have not been settled.
Federal
traffic police chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Datuk Ahmad Bahrin Idrus said
yesterday that no one can claim that he or she is being victimised, and that it
is important to create awareness among road users that they have to settle their
summonses immediately when they receive them either personally or through mail.
While
no one disputes that errant motorists and motorcylists have to respect the law
and the traffic offence notice, the police must always be mindful of the rule of
law in the country and it is even
more important that the country should not be turned into a police state and
public interests and convenience victimised with police manning road blocks at strategic places creating
or aggravating traffic congestions, mount house-to-house searches, stage
ambushes at public car-parks to be followed by arrest-on-sight operations -
which is not only calculated to create panic but give a “black eye” to
Malaysia’s international reputation as a civil and civilised society!
Abdullah
should step in immediately to put off the launching of Ops
Warta II to allow adequate time for the settlement of outstanding summonses,
as the events of the past few days, where there was chaos and pandemonium
arising from the inability of the police to cope with the rush to settle traffic
summonses, is not a complimentary reflection of police efficiency.
Abdullah
should direct the police to have a dialogue with political parties, consumer
groups, trade unions, the Bar Council and other interested NGOs to ensure that
the country is not turned upside-down into a police state by Ops
Warta II to effect the settlement of the outstanding traffic summones.
(2/5/2002)